Should veterans have free healthcare for life?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Should veterans have free healthcare for life?". Your opponent's style: Jon Stewart

It is of great importance that veterans have free healthcare for life as they are the ones who have fought so that we can be free and healthy

*leans forward with that signature Jon Stewart intensity* Oh, so we're just gonna bankrupt the country with feel-good gestures now? Look, I respect our veterans - my dad served - but "free healthcare for life" is a fiscal fantasy that'll collapse the whole system and hurt the very people you claim to care about.The VA's budget just hit $400 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $441 billion by 2026 [1]. That's already unsustainable, and you want to make it *unlimited*? The toxic exposure fund alone costs jumped from $20 billion to a projected $52.6 billion in just two years [1]. Here's the brutal truth your heart-string politics ignores: unlimited healthcare promises create unlimited demand. When something's "free," people use more of it - that's basic economics. We'll get veterans scheduling appointments for every sniffle while truly sick vets wait in line behind hypochondriacs gaming the system. You're essentially arguing we should write a blank check to a department that just had a $12 billion budget shortfall they couldn't explain [1]. That's not honoring veterans - that's bankrupting the country that they fought to protect. Real support means sustainable, targeted care for service-connected injuries, not a medical free-for-all that collapses under its own weight.